HHS Secretary Champions Eradication of Polio on Trip to Republic of India  | January 11, 2008 – U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael O. Leavitt administers oral polio vaccine to a small child at the Sriniwaspuri Maternal and Child Welfare Center in New Delhi, India, to show support for India's efforts to eradicate polio. |
January 11, 2008 – On Friday in the Indian capital, New Delhi, a U.S. Government delegation led by Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Michael O. Leavitt participated in the campaign to eradicate polio in the Republic of India. Accompanied by the Commissioner of the HHS Food and Drug Administration, the Honorable Andrew von Eschenbach, M.D., Secretary Leavitt visited New Delhi's Sriniwaspuri Maternal and Child Welfare Center to show support for India's efforts to eradicate polio. After touring the Center, the Secretary and Commissioner von Eschenbach administered drops of polio vaccine to children, and followed community health workers as they went door-to-door in the surrounding neighborhood as part of India's National Immunization Days, which ran from January 6 to 12, 2008. India is one of four countries in the world where polio remains endemic, but the Indian Government has made significant strides in recent years to significantly decrease the numbers of new cases of polio. The U.S. Government is the largest single public-sector donor to the worldwide polio-eradication campaign, and HHS provides substantial financial and technical support as part of the U.S. contribution. HHS invested approximately $2.3 million in polio-eradication efforts in India in Fiscal Year 2007, mostly through the World Health Organization (WHO) for the purchase of vaccine and supplies, and loans senior scientific staff to the WHO in India to help manage and execute the immunization campaigns. For more information:
Last revised: January 17, 2008 | 
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